PEMBROKE
William Herbet, Earl of Pembroke, gave his name to Pembroke College, and as, perhaps, "Mr. W. H." "the onlie begetter" of the Sonnets of Shakspere; he may be written down as a Literary Landmark of unique distinction. But Pembroke was a nursery of learning before the Sonnets were conceived. It was originally occupied by Clerks of the Civil and Canon Law, when it was known as Segrym's Hall, until, in the reign of Henry VI., a large entrance was built, and from this it got the name of Broadgates Hall. It was a popular spot in Oxford in somewhat later times, when the ladies, serious and frivolous, were "so farthingaled, so penthoused-out far beyond their bodies, with bucklers of pasteboard, that they could not pass through any other door except sidewise!" In 1624, during the reign of James I., Broadgates became, by Letters Patent, the "College of Pembroke in the University of Oxford"; and as such it was styled a "Perpetual College of Divinity, Civil and Canon Law, Arts, Medicine and Other Sciences."
John Addington Symonds once called Master John Heywood a "Prose Chaucer."
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